Malcolm Turnbull says he is standing up to bullies in the media

Malcolm Turnbull says he has 'no desires or expectations' to be leader of the Liberal party and is standing up to 'bullies' who suggest otherwise, while he also claims the National Broadband Network is progressing well.

Transcript

SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: As political barnies go, the one that's erupted between Malcolm Turnbull and the conservative commentariat is up there with the most ferocious. Earlier this week Mr Turnbull described columnist Andrew Bolt as "demented" and "unhinged". Today the Communications Minister took on shock jock Alan Jones, calling him a bomb thrower who was doing the work of the Labor Party. Mr Turnbull's outbursts were prompted by the commentators accusing him of failing to support the Budget and undermining Tony Abbott.

Malcolm Turnbull is with me in the studio to discuss the Budget, the travails of the Government and progress on the National Broadband Network. But first, here's what everyone's been talking about.

ALAN JONES, RADIO COMPERE (2GB, June 5): Can I begin by asking you if you could say after me this: "As a senior member of the Abbott Government, I want to say here I am totally supportive of the Abbott-Hockey strategy for budget repair"?

MALCOLM TURNBULL, COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER: Alan, I am not going to take dictation from you. I am a cabinet minister. I support unreservedly and wholeheartedly every element in the Budget. Tony and I are a team. We have a very united team here. And the thing that has distressed me this week is that some people - yourself, Alan - Andrew Bolt in particular - have set out to suggest that there is dissension in the Government, that there are challenges to Tony's leadership.

ALAN JONES: There's no challenge to his leadership. They are suggesting, Malcolm, precisely because you have no hope ever of being the leader - you've got to get that into your head: no hope ever - but because of that, you're happy to chuck a few bombs around that might blow up Abbott a bit. That's what they're saying.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, that's what you're saying and that's what Andrew Bolt is saying and it is doing the Labor Party's work. This is the most united, cohesive government we've had in this country for a long time and I think it's just very sad that you and Bolt are doing the work of the Labor Party in undermining the Abbott Government.

ALAN JONES: Oh, so we're the bomb throwers?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: You are, Alan.

SARAH FERGUSON: Malcolm Turnbull, welcome to 7.30.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Great to be with you.

SARAH FERGUSON: Now earlier on you described Andrew Bolt as "unhinged" and "demented". How would you describe Alan Jones' attack on you?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I did describe it on radio this morning and you've just played a bit of it. I don't need to rehearse it here. What I - as we agreed earlier in the week, I'm coming on to talk to you about the very considerable progress of the NBN under the new government and that's what I'd like to talk about. We have made great progress of pulling this failed Labor project into line.

SARAH FERGUSON: Alright. I'm just going to interrupt you there if I may because we will certainly get to that, and as I said in the introduction, we are going to talk about it. However, these are very significant attacks on you by two of the Prime Minister's best friends in the media. Why do you think they're attacking you in that way?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I'm not speculating on that. I think it's - the Abbott Government is totally united, cohesive. It is - there couldn't be a more united and cohesive government. Nobody - there's no-one in the press gallery in Canberra, who keep a good eye on these things - none of them are suggesting there's anything untoward. And so, out of the blue came this campaign from a few people in the media to...

SARAH FERGUSON: You say out of the blue - you say out of the blue; do you think it was co-ordinated?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Um ... it certainly - you could form that view, you could form that view. There was a series of events that would give you - people could come to that conclusion.

SARAH FERGUSON: And whose hands do you see in that co-ordination? Do you see the Prime Minister's office, for example?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, I don't see - absolutely not. Of that, I am absolutely certain. That would be - that really would be mad.

SARAH FERGUSON: So who do you think was coordinating it then?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: I'm not - Sarah, I don't want to speculate about that. My job is to defend the Budget, defend the Government and when anybody - I don't care who they are, whether they say they're our friend or not - who starts running a campaign to claim that the Government is divided and that a senior cabinet minister, in this case me, is without any evidence at all is seeking to undermine the Prime Minister, telling an enormous falsehood. I will not stand by and let that falsehood be peddled, because there is a risk if you don't stand up to bullies and people who peddle these lines, that they will start to become accepted. These people have got big megaphones and you've got to take - you've got to stand them up for it.

SARAH FERGUSON: Andrew Bolt made another comment actually on this particular program. He said - after Tony Abbott had come out in support of you - he said, "I don't expect him," - this is Andrew Bolt - "I don't expect him to side with me against Malcolm Turnbull yet." Did you take that as a warning?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, I think I took that as a - Mr Bolt's own view of his enormous - his own perception of what he thinks is enormous influence and I think most people would have raised at least one eyebrow when they heard him say that.

SARAH FERGUSON: So what do you think was going on? I mean, is this just the ongoing existential threat that you pose to the Prime Minister and they want to put a stop to it before it gains any further traction?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Sarah, all this is the meat and drink of politics and this is exactly the sort of very unhelpful discussion that was inevitable and calculated consequence of the attacks made by Bolt and Jones. That's why I'm - I've pushed back on them and I don't want to agitate them any further. But it is very important - and let me deal with this, anticipating a question, perhaps: some people have said, "Oh, Malcolm, you should have just ignored them. You should have just said nothing." And the problem is...

SARAH FERGUSON: I tell you what, that wasn't my question, so why don't I put my question that I have?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, but the problem is if you do that, if you do that, then they get away with it and the risk that you run is that a government that is completely united, completely cohesive, with good - a really good, hardworking, tight team, will be represented and in due course perceived as being something else and that's not in anybody's interest.

SARAH FERGUSON: Alright. Let me ask you this then: knowing how much stock that the voters put on honesty - and I know that our viewers are the same - can you say, hand on heart tonight, you no longer harbour any desire to lead the country?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: I don't have any plans, any desires, any expectations to be the leader. That's true. Having said that, Sarah - and I'm going to be very honest with you here - politics is an unpredictable business. So people say to me often, "Do you think you'll be leader again?" And I say, "My prospects are somewhere between nil and very negligible," and I think that is probably about right.

SARAH FERGUSON: But your ambition is not yet extinguished.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Oh, Sarah, don't - you're - this is - don't play games with me like that.

SARAH FERGUSON: It's not a game, it's a straight question.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, it is a straight question, but I don't think there is any member of the House of Representatives who, if in the right circumstances, would not take on that responsibility. But I am very, very happy doing what I'm doing. I have a really exciting job being the Communications Minister. I'm looking at an efficiency review of the ABC. I was just having a cup of tea. You're not wasting any money on the crockery here, I can see that, but that's alright. The - and I think that really we've got to just keep our heads down and work hard, we've got a leader who's doing a great job and get on with it.

SARAH FERGUSON: Just briefly, Clive Palmer - you actually gave Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones the ammunition by inviting him to dinner. That's where the questions of disloyalty arose from. Was that a mistake?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: No - well let me - and if we can - after this, can we move onto - back onto the NBN? The dinner with Clive was a - one of those serendipitous Canberra dinners which happen. You bump into people and invite people.

SARAH FERGUSON: In order to speed things up, do you regret it?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, I do not. But I just want to make this very clear: Parliament is all about engagement and talking to people. There is nothing wrong or even untoward or even unusual with people talking to crossbenchers or even people on the other side of the House and the Opposition - first point. Second point is: the dinner with Clive was regarded as a bit of a laugh. People around Capital Hill, around the Parliament, people were rather amused that - the newspapers - or one of the newspapers had said it was a "secret dinner" and we all thought it was a bit of a hoot that anyone could think you could have a secret dinner in a Canberra restaurant in a sitting week. It was anything but secret - obviously. It only became an issue when Andrew Bolt, on the Sunday, used it as a means of saying to Tony Abbott, "Malcolm Turnbull is after your job," forcing the Prime Minister then to deny that there was a challenge. That was when Bolt and followed up by Jones on the Monday morning and so forth, started to set this hare running. Now I'm sure they didn't have my best interests at heart, but the problem is the consequence of that was to essentially represent a united and cohesive government as being divided and that is why I pushed back, because it was a complete and utter falsehood and it had to be stopped in its tracks.

SARAH FERGUSON: Alright. Let's move on to the NBN because time will not be on our side at this point. You've got your NBN promises. You said in February that the renegotiation of Telstra's $11 billion deal with NBN Co would be done certainly, you said, by the middle of the year. Where is it?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I wouldn't say that was a promise, Sarah. That was certainly an expectation. It is very far...

SARAH FERGUSON: A pledge.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: It is very - it's not a pledge. It was a forecast. It is very far advanced and it's going very well and the discussions are proceeding very well. But what is - what's really exciting is that the rollout, which has been chaotic, is now starting to stabilise.

SARAH FERGUSON: But how much is the delay that we're seeing at the moment going to delay the customers - push back the rollout for the customers, 'cause that's what they care about?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, I don't - well, I - no, I don't think it will. We've, we've, we've been - we've factored things in pretty carefully. The NBN Co's fibre-to-the-premises rollout, which is continuing of course, is already past the June 30 target under the Strategic Review, so they're doing very well. I mean, at the time of the election, 78 per cent of the premises that have been passed by fibre did not have any connection, did not have a line connecting them to the system. We've got that number down to just under 60 per cent and it's continuing to fall. So what we're doing is we're going - Labor had - Labor was really doing fibre-to-the-press release. They were running fibre around the place so they could say we've passed all these premises, but they weren't hooking any of them up.

SARAH FERGUSON: But your own trial sites are being delayed as well. That's causing the delay of the trial sites - as I understand it, isn't going ahead.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: No, no, that's not true. There are trial sites, there's 11 nodes set up on Umina on the Central Coast and we are coming - we are - you know, finalising the discussions with Telstra to do a big thousand-node trial and which will then roll into the full fibre-to-the-node rollout. So there's a - things are moving along very well.

SARAH FERGUSON: And you say we can expect to see that deal with Telstra signed soon?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I expect we will reach - we will finalise the commercial terms in the near future and I talk about the middle of the year. But, look, let me just say this: this is a forecast, it's moving along very well, but I don't want to be held to a particular date. You can imagine both parties want to get it wrapped up.

SARAH FERGUSON: Alright, Malcolm Turnbull, I appreciate you coming in to talk about both of those things.